Ike can't believe the damage

We did not suffer the amount of damage that some areas did. We are just blown away by the devastation at Crystal Beach. We were just there in July at a beach cabin that is probably not there anymore. We truly feel lucky to have our house and belongings intact. These storms can definitely make someone have to start over.
Hurricane Hunters...





As the storm rolls in we all settled in for the ride.


Our neighhborhood





Our yard



Here is our main concern. Our neighbors tree uprooted and is leaning on one of our trees. Our tree is bending to support the fallen tree. We are hoping to get it taken care of quickly before they both come crashing through our house.






Our electricity went our on Saturday at 6:15 am as IKE rolled in. We are not expected to get power back for 2-3 more weeks according to Entergy. So for now here is our light amongst the dark.

Ike it or not...we are fine

We made it through the biggest baddest storm. We came out of it pretty unscathed. We have lots of limbs and leaves down. We also have a tree from our neighbors who is making friends with one of our trees. You will see it from the pics that they may soon depart. Then the trees will make friends with our house. Our neighborhood was hit pretty hard. About every 4th house have either a tree uprooted or a tree on their house. We lost power at 6am on Saturday. So far we are hearing that it will be 3 weeks before it comes back on. We decided to head to my parents for a few days until the cool front comes in. We feel very fortunate and blessed that we did not have much damage.

I will post pics next...........

We are ready!!!

Hit us with your "not so best" shot IKE...just a few unwanted trees down please.

Ike-carumba

"Guess what's coming Bubby?" says mom while swinging him outside.

"I dunno know Mom." replies Bubby.

"A hurricane is coming...a hurricane is coming!" sings mommy in a joyful tune.

"Ahhh man, I wanted Batman." Bubby says disappointedly.


We are riding it out here at the house. We are expected to get 100 mph winds up here. We are going to put the kids in the laundry room tonight to sleep. We have boarded up that window. We have cleared our yard of anything that might go sailing in the wind. We have plenty of food and water to last us. We figure the power will go out and if it is out for long we will head to my parents.

I'll post pics tomorrow if we have anything of worth to photo and if we have power. Just pray that our trees stay standing and we don't get much damage.

Toddler Time

Watching Diego one night...

Posing while doing something he shouldn't be doing...standing on the arm of the couch

No need for a blanket for your baby while wearing a dress

(yes those are panties...it only lasted for that day)

Gustavin' a good time

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things have been pretty busy around here the past 2 weeks. We had alot of people over a few weekends ago when the Beaumont area evacuated for Gustav. We turned into a birthday party for my FIL who turned 60!!! We had a good time. Buggers and Bubby enjoyed playing with Kirk's girlfriends boys. We played dominoes, ate, and visited.

Shoot...Fire

Bubs got ahold of my camera tonight and decided to have his first photo shoot of Buggers. I must say he did a fine job on getting some action shots and some great still ones. I promise you he took all of these himself. He loves taking pictures. Maybe I have an award winning photographer in the making!!!

Hair be Gone

I am 4 inches shorter...atleast. I am ok with it. I think I will be commissioning my sister this weekend to trim it up for me. My hair is so think it doesn't do well with short layers and makes it look like a bell. I really wanted to go shorter but the lady was too scared to do it. She didn't even want to go as short as we did. What do you think...shorter or is it ok?

I really am going for the more sophisticated older look that my age is calling for.
Before...




After...

We wear our sunglasses...

all the time!!!!

Nitty Gritty Duo

The kids have found a great spot in the back yard to play in the dirt. They have so much fun making mountains of dirt and filling up buckets.

Long gone are the summer days

Well today is the last day of summer for me. I go back to work tomorrow. I really don't like the week teachers go back. It is full of meaningless meetings that keep you from working in your room. I like when the kids come and I can start teaching. We hung out at home all day. It was nice outside so the kids spend the majority of the day in the backyard. They swam and have rigged up their little slide to go right into the pool. I can tell Bubby has paid attention to all the swimming on TV because I saw a little Phelps junior today. He was diving off by bending over then going under and swimming. Buggers just likes to go down the slide head first. I sat at the breakfast table searching for stuff on craiglist with the windows open. It was 89 out today so it felt great compared to the 100 it usually is. Lazy days are the best.

We had a garage sale yesterday at my sister's. We gathered all our stuff up and headed down there early in the morning. We really didn't have any big stuff...lots of knick knacks and baby stuff. But we did make $161 so I thought it was a success.

We did not get a chance to hit the shops this weekend for TAX FREE WEEKEND. I might try and convince hubs to run to Walmart with me after dinner to see if they have any kids clothes on sale. They are both growing like weeds and are going to need bigger clothes soon.

I have become quite the suzy homemaker this summer with cooking. I have cooked just about every meal at home. We have only gone out a few times this summer. We are doing so well on our stockpiling that it makes it easy to fix meals. Tonight we are having a pork roast, creamy potato casserole, green beans, and french bread. Last night we had marinated chicken, brocoli, baked beans and cornbread. Buggers was so funny last night. She goes "Mommy's eating trees". She tried it but didn't like it. However she ate 2 helpings of baked beans.

Hubs takes his secondary math test on Tuesday. Once he passes it he will be hired on full time. He has been studying and seems to be doing well on the problems. His mom is thinking about coming and living with us for a little while to help out with the kids. We are very excited about this idea. I think it will be great for the kids and us too. Once we find out if it is going to happen we are going to change some things up in the house to accomodate my MIL and SIL. This will help us out for a few months to save some money on daycare. Then once she decides to go on up with my FIL to Dallas we will put them in daycare.

Regards of what happens things are going to be changing around here...all for the better.

A jobing we will go....

Well hubs did it!! He landed a teaching job. He has been hired at a high school to teach geometry to kids who have not passed it in previous semesters. We went by his school today to check it out. It is huge...no mammoth might be a better word. There are about 3200 students. We checked out what will probably be his room. Jail cell comes to mind when I think of it. It doesn't have any windows and is the size of a cracker jack box with about 30 desks in it. However on the up side it does have a presentation system mounted to the ceiling and some storage cabinets. As soon as we find out for sure that it is his room, we are going to teacherize it and get it ready for his eager and willing students.

Now that hubs is working we no longer have Daddy Day Care. We have been on the day care hunt the past two days. We have interviewed 3 in home ladies and 2 daycares. Let me tell you we have been so blessed to have hubs stay home all these years. Daycare is going to cost an arm and leg. On the high end, one daycare wants $214 for Buggers and $184 for Bubby per week!!! Do you need the Heimlich since you are now choking on your cookie. Yeah almost $400 a week for daycare. Do they think all we do is work to pay for daycare?!? On the low end, in home day care is $120 per kid per week plus yearly supply fees. So we have decided on a cute little daycare that is going to charge us $150 per kid per week plus some extra added perks. We are both really anxious about puttng them in daycare. I'm not worried about Bubby I think he will love it. I'm more worried about Buggers. She does not like to be left anywhere without us. She made that very clear this summer with VBS.

Now that we have this added cost of childcare we have been trying to cut some expenses around the house. Hubs called today to see about getting rid of our home phone since only a handful of people have that number and most of those we let ring...aka 800 numbers. Anyways we were going to just go to cable and internet. However when he called they ended up knocking our bill $50 and we are able to keep our home line. So you might want to call and let your provider know you want to drop your home line and see if you can get a reduced rate. I know it has been a growing trend to only have cell phones and very few have land lines. Anyway call and give it a try. We also cancelled our dog's wellness plan. We only use it to get her shots and we can probably get them done cheap somewhere. We also cancelled our Y membership. We mostly use the swimming part and now that school is starting back up we really won't get a chance to do that. So in a matter of 30 minutes we were able to add an extra 120 bucks back into the pot. I think that is about all we can cut. We are down to bare bones now. They only luxury expense we have is Netflix. We find that is our only entertainment and we can swing the $20 a month on that subscription. I am even going to team up with a friend on GroceryGame. So that will cut down that also. Even though it is only $10 ever 8 weeks. But that equates to $60 a year. So now that will only be $30 :) Thanks Jes!!! I hope our electricity bill shows a decrease this month. We have been running our AC at 78 for a week or so. It is outrageous how much that bill is every month. And I really shouldn't complain some of my friends who have smaller houses their bill is in the 400s. Ours rarely gets over 200. We have also been eating in every meal. We went to a restaurant last week for the first time in over a month. It is easily $25-$30 every time we go out. I can make a meal here at the house for under $5 usually. Just seems useless to waste so much money. Also now that hubs and I are both going to be working, we are going to have to brown bag it for lunch. My schedule doesn't permit me next year to run out and grab a bite so I will have to do it. And hubs schedule is the same as mine so he won't either. Even though there is a sonic across the street and the extra long cheese coney will be calling his name.

How else is everyone beating the money pinch? Any suggestions or hints on how to save a dollar or two or more?

I have some pics of the kids from the past few days. I will upload them later tonight or tomorrow. They are getting so big and are so smart. Notice I said smart refering to their intelligence not their attitude. :)

Insane in the Membrane

We are hanging tough here trying to make it through the heat, money shortage, cramped quarters and boredom while trying to salvage our sanity.

Addicted to...

Olympics...we have been watching them the past two days. Hubs turned them on today as soon as he woke up even before nature called. We both love watching the "objective" events especially swimming. Gotta love Phelps!! We watched women's gymnastics tonight but hate how subjective it is. Look forward to watching track and field in a week or so.

BoatloadPuzzles.com....I love crossword puzzles and I found this website with online ones. It is so great. I do several every night. I'm getting better each time improving my scores. That sounds like such a nerd...What can I say its summer!!! And there is not much to do

Here are some recent pics of the babies. Life has been life around here. Hubs is still on the job hunt. He has another job interview tomorrow at a high school. If he doesn't get it we are looking at him doing some subbing and are going to meet with a lady this week for daycare. I am just going to enjoy my last week offwith the kids and hubs before school starts on the 18th. We are getting some doctors appointments in this week as well as getting the kids pics taken. We are also going to get the house all ready for another school year. I am having a hard time getting pumped about school this year. I guess I am looking forward to us making some changes next year and I just want to speed up the process.


**Update: No real change in my grandfather. Still the same situation. Waiting to hear from my mom tonight to see how he did today.

In need of....

prayers for my grandfather. He is not doing well at this time. We are all scared. He is struggling to breathe, dizzy, slurring his speech, and has discoloration on his legs and feet.

:(

*crying*

What is truly important....

This past week has been especially rough for me with the loss of my grandmother. She was the first family member that I have ever lost. The last time I saw her I was very focused on my grandpa since he was doing so bad at the time. I did not get the chance to really tell her goodbye. And that saddens me. In looking back over my life, I realize some faults and mistakes that I have made and need to remedy. Life is so short and we really need to focus on what is truly important. My family is the most important thing in my life. My main goal is to love and cherish them. And everything else is just gravy. I have decided to keep my focus on being a better mom, wife and Christian. Therefore I have made some changes in my life to help me accomplish that. Consequently, there are some changes that affect people around me and things that I used to do. So please don't take offense if I seem distant or different, it is just me trying to be better. What is life if you don't have what is most important around you? My life would be nothing without my husband, children and family.

So cheers to a better me!!!!